The Catholic Historical Review

James F. Powers
The Early Reconquest Episcopate at Cuenca, 1177–1284
The Catholic Historical Review - Volume 87, Number 1, January 2001, pp. 1-16

The Catholic University of America Press

James F. Powers - The Early Reconquest Episcopate at Cuenca, 1177-1284 - The Catholic Historical Review 87:1 The Catholic Historical Review 87.1 (2001) 1-16 The Early Reconquest Episcopate at Cuenca, 1177-1284 James F. Powers [Appendix] The Christian Iberian Reconquest is often assumed by scholars outside of the peninsula (and sometimes by those within it) to be a part of the crusading movement. The customary image of such enterprises posits crown and miter, priest and citizen linked in a joint endeavor to spread the word of Christ by means of the Church Militant. Any serious investigation of medieval Luso-Hispania soon reveals a reality far more complex. Christian rulers fight each other, often in alliance with Muslim princes. Bishops occasionally find themselves caught between the press of the emerging territorial monarchies, the striving municipalities, and the designs of the papal reform movement. The citizens of the new frontier towns, as elsewhere in Europe, contended bitterly with the bishop over questions of authority and economic resources. Indeed, the episcopacy is often a neglected element in the study of the military, political, and economic forces combined in the Reconquest effort. A useful micro-model for examining many of these elements is the town of Cuenca. Captured from the Muslim Almohads in 1177, it was designated as an episcopal see virtually at the outset. The shape it would take as town and bishopric on a militarized frontier is...